y'll be higher people--higher than their parents--higher than their
teacher--they'll be efficient farmers, and efficient farmers' wives.
They'll be happy, because they will know how to use more brains in farming
than any lawyer or doctor or merchant can possibly use in his business.
I'm educating them to find an outlet for genius in farming!"

"It's a fine thing," said Mrs. Bonner, coming to the aid of her fellow
soldiers, "to work hard for a lifetime, an' raise nothing but a family of
farmers! A fine thing!"

"They will be farmers anyhow," cried Jim, "in spite of your
efforts--ninety out of every hundred of them! And of the other ten, nine
will be wage-earners in the cities, and wish to God they were back on the
farm; and the hundredth one will succeed in the city. Shall we educate the
ninety-and-nine to fail, that the hundredth, instead of enriching the
rural life with his talents, may steal them away to make the city
stronger? It is already too strong for us farmers. Shall we drive our best
away to make it stronger?"

The guns of Mrs. Bonner and Mrs. Peterson were silenced for a moment, and
Mrs. Bronson, after gazing about at the typewriter, the hectograph, the
exhibits of weed seeds, the Babcock milk tester, and the other
unscholastic equipment, pointed to the list of words, and the arithmetic
problems on the board.

"Do you get them words from the speller?" she asked.

"No," said he, "we got them from a lesson on seed wheat."

"Did them examples come out of an arithmetic book?" cross-examined she.

"No," said Jim, "we used problems we made ourselves. We were figuring
profits and losses on your cows, Mrs. Bronson!"

"Ezra Bronson," said Mrs. Bronson loftily, "don't need any help in telling
what's a good cow. He was farming before you was born!"

"Like fun, he don't need help! He's going to dry old Cherry off and fatten
her for beef; and he can make more money on the cream by beefing about
three more of 'em. The Babcock test shows they're just boarding on us
without paying their board!"

The delegation of matrons ruffled like a group of startled hens at this
interposition, which was Newton Bronson's effective seizing of the
opportunity to issue a progress bulletin in the research work on the
Bronson dairy herd.

"Newton!" said his mother, "don't interrupt me when I'm talking to the
teacher!"

"Well, then," said Newton, "don't tell the teacher that pa knew which cows
were good and which were poor. If any